Intel boosts Linux software efforts

Intel is pushing its Linux software efforts in a bid
to break into the smartphone chip market. For the last couple of
weeks Intel has been pushing its Moblin software which is a mobile version
of Linux to the press.

Moblin has a few tricks which makes it better than
the other mobile operating systems out there. The first is that it can reach
the internet in about seven seconds and then shows a list of appointments
and favourite programs. Packed with animated icons and other quirky
bits and pieces, Moblin looks different, especially compaired to the fairly
stale Microsoft
offerings. Intel says that smart phones and netbooks
will be the target for the OS. Novell apparently has decided to offer a
customised version of the OS.

So why is Intel so interested in an
operating system that it can't make money from? Well the answer is that
Moblin will help the sales of the Atom. Intel wants the Atom under the
bonnet of every smart phone and netbook. However most mobile phones run on
Arm chips or beasts of a different architecture.

By providing good
mobile software for the Atom chip, it will encourage phone makers to buy
them and the next thing you know your phone will have an Atom chip on board
and Intel will be even richer.